Jaitley has reportedly said the AAP government is using advertising funds to manipulate the media,.

“While 'friendly' media is being given advertisements, media houses which are critical of the AAP government are being denied ad revenue,” the Times of India quoted him as saying during an interview with the Times Now's Arnab Goswami.

When asked about liquor baron Vijay Mallya's case, Jaitley took a dig at the "famed British civility" and said, "Britain has one of the highest standards of civility in public life and therefore for Britain to become a haven for any absconder out of India is something that I cannot fathom.”

“British government has taken a position that if you enter the Britain with a valid passport, then we are not going to deport a person, you come in by way of extradition. And conventionally they have been very slow and reluctant in extraditing people.

“And I think where you criticize the government of India, we can take all the steps but ultimately we can not physically lift an individual and bring him back,” the report quoted him as saying.